Glad To Be Mostly Non-Microsoft-Dependent ... But I Wish The World Would Catch Up

I gave up Windows 23 years ago. Or at least 95% gave it up. Whenever I buy a new computer that has it installed, I immediately install Linux, but usually as dual boot, then to a little Windows gaming for a month or three until I decide I'd rather have the hard drive space and nuke it.

Of course, what happened yesterday (it seems to be ongoing) wasn't really about Windows. It was about Microsoft's web apps (Outlook email, their cloud office suite, etc.). Bazillions of people stopped having email and had to find other tools if they wanted to do any word processing, spreadsheet maintenance, etc.

Still no biggie for me. I have an Outlook email address that I use for one, and only one, thing (maintaining a Microsoft account to redeem Bing rewards points), and I don't use Word, Excel, etc.

But I publish a daily newsletter which goes out to thousands of email recipients, and syndicate my thrice-weekly Garrison op-eds by email as well. A lot of those addresses are presumably bouncing, inaccessible, etc. at the moment. On the Garrison Center end, I usually get auto-replies within seconds or minutes from many of the 1,300 or so US newspapers I submit to. For yesterday's piece, they're still trickling in 12+ hours later.

People -- Microsoft is cancer. Get a real OS and if you're going to use web apps, choose non-Microsoft offerings. You're welcome.

Wordle 1973 Hint

Hint: Energetic spirit (also, the official soft drink of Maine).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

Week 10 NFL Picks

Here comes Week 9 of the NFL season -- tonight the Washington Commanders play the New York Giants. My picks:

• New York Giants play Washington Commanders
• Detroit Lions beat New England Patriots
• Kansas City Chiefs beat Atlanta Falcons
• Cleveland Browns beat Houston Texans*
• Green Bay Packers beat Minnesota Vikings
• Jacksonville Jaguars beat Tennessee Titans
• Miami Dolphins beat Indianapolis Colts*
• New Orleans Saints beat Carolina Panthers*
• Buffalo Bills beat New York Jets
• Seattle Seahawks beat Las Vegas Raiders
• Los Angeles Rams beat Arizona Cardinals
• San Francisco 49ers beat Dallas Cowboys
• Pittsburgh Steelers beat Cincinnati Bengals*
• Baltimore Ravens beat Los Angeles Chargers

Upset picks are marked with an asterisk. If I change any of my picks, the changes will be made before kickoff and specifically noted in an update to this post. The picks are also recorded at ESPN's Pick'em game.